Student activism is a strange beast. It’s amazing what a small group of committed students can do — the student leadership on fair trade issues is a case in point — but then those students graduate, and often that energy gets lost entirely until a new group of students come together and start from scratch, unaware that others ever tried to do the exact same thing.

I’ve been trying to trace the history of fair trade activism at USC — Somewhat surprisingly, there has been a lil bit of it at this University of Spoiled Children –

2003

• USC Volunteer Costa Rica was established, according to their website, “for one purpose - to change the world for the better.” Check out their website for more details on that optimistic goal.

2004

• Elise Wach, co-founder of USC Costa Rica, studied in Atenas at the School for Field, which works with a co-op to make more eco-friendly coffee.
• Elizabeth Leitzell of the student newspaper, Daily Trojan, wrote an opinion piece critiquing Starbucks and championing fair trade coffee last September. That piece got Sue Mecklenburg, veep of business practices at Starbucks, to write back a very lengthy, defensive retort in October.

Early 2005

• The co-op (see first bullet point, 2004) produced its first crop of certified organic coffee. Instead of selling all the coffee to Starbucks as they had in the past, the co-op sold about a ton of it to USC Costa Rica, which outbid Starbucks by 36%. USC Costa Rica began selling this coffee as a fundraiser.
• I and some other grad students in the English department attended the USFT Convergence and wrote a letter to USC’s hospitality services asking them to offer fair trade coffee on campus.
• This fall, Gloria, a new Oxfam Change leader, formed a student senate-recognized organization, Oxfam-USC with some like-minded friends.

Which brings us to now. We have three groups of students working with three different organizations, who until recently didn’t know each other even existed:

1. USC Costa Rica — They’re still trying to sell off the coffee they bought; about 20% remains.
2. Oxfam-USC — Their first event is this week! It’ll feature Mr. Seydou Ouedraogo, a speaker from the West African Farmer’s tour (Thursday, Sept. 15, 6pm, THH 210).
3. Disorganized grad students in the English department — The three venues USC has opened or reopened this year (Tutor Hall Cyber Cafe, Doheny Tea House, Law School Cafe) all offer Peet’s fair trade coffee as an option, which we’d like to think had something to do with our letter. We also have a call in to Lori at Hospitality Services about getting Starbucks to give us fair trade.

Sadly, there’s been no mention of fair trade in the Daily Trojan since October 2004. And seriously, if I count up all the students involved in these groups — actually involved, not just on the email list — there are like 15 of us, maybe. Sean of USC Costa Rica thinks we can also get Environment First, Human Rights Action, and Peace and Conflict Scholars interested, but I’m already getting confused by all the organizations and their different goals — and I don’t wanna step on anybody’s toes –

Again I find myself getting overwhelmed by the scope of the problems and the work that remains to be done — you know, the taking down the skyscraper with a toothpick thing. Oy. For now, I’m gonna try to just focus on the coffee thing — and attending and spreading the word about and bringing fair trade coffee to the events put on by the other groups — without worrying too much about getting involved with all these organizations.

After all, my quals are coming up. On Wednesday, to be exact. AAAHHHH!!!!!

fair trade

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